My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel(37)
“I-I couldn’t sleep, miss! So me and Dodger, we went hunting for the lost treasure!”
“Oh, Timmy,” you say as you hug the boy. “Did you see…Did you see what happened?”
“I-it was Gertie, miss!” Timmy manages to say between sobs. “She went into the room with Colonel Abercrombie, and they was arguing for a long time!”
You hug him even tighter. “Did you hear what they were arguing about, Timmy?”
“Only th-that sh-she thought she was being followed,” Timmy says, gasping through his tears. “She wanted to stage an accident, for you and Mr. Mac, and Colonel Abercrombie said no, to leave you two alone, and then…and then everything went quiet. But…”
“Oh, my darling,” you whisper, “what is it?”
He looks up at you with huge, frightened eyes.
“Colonel Abercrombie called her a strange name, miss.”
Your heart catches in your throat, for you already know what the child is going to say.
“He called her Constantina!”
Time to get a-movin’! Hasten to this page.
“Give us a moment to settle some things before we set out, Hugo,” Lady Evangeline calls out to the carriage driver as you two climb in, lit with an air of giddy discovery. “I dare say this is quite the dramatic turn of events,” she says to you and laughs somewhat nervously.
“Indeed,” you agree, “and we didn’t even have to stick around for the matinee.” You laugh as well, but the sound jangles your nerves. You attempt to soothe them with a nip from the flask of brandy that Lady Evangeline has brought along for the trip.
Lady Evangeline follows suit and shoots you an imploring look. “Honestly, my dear, I do not know how to proceed,” she says. “What do you think?”
“Well, we have discovered that Benedict’s birthright is safe, his father’s first wife could be considered quite the cruel harpy or the clever girl, and I can’t wait to see the look on his face when we tell him!”
“You won’t have to wait long, you wretch!” You manage to drop the brandy flask with a gasp, for the insult hurled at you came from none other than Benedict, who has somehow tracked you down from London and thrown wide the door of your carriage. His handsome features are colored in anger, and, you note with amusement, he has forgotten to properly arrange his cravat in his haste to trail you.
“Your cravat is mismanaged, Sir Benedict,” you say and then deftly retrieve the flask from the carriage floor.
“My cravat is as managed as a cravat need be moments before it is used to strangle an interfering fool such as you!” Benedict spouts. The slight flush of anger really brings out the animal desire in his eyes.
“Perhaps, Lady Evangeline, you could give your cousin and me a moment alone?” you say, the picture of calm composure. You offer Benedict a sip from the flask. He shakes his head, incredulous, and slaps the flask from your hand.
“Do go at once, Vange. I do not want you to witness anything you can testify to in a court of law.” Benedict climbs into the carriage, hellfire blazing in his gaze. You are startled to find that the unbroken, if angry, eye contact is causing your own hellfire to blaze…in your loins.
“Oh, the dramatics, Benny,” Lady Evangeline says. “You know what? Hugo will take you two back home to Kent. I will take your carriage, Benny. The seats are much nicer. Have a grand time, you two.” She tosses you a wink before exiting, leaving you and a very angry, very handsome, very fancy man staring at each other in a well-appointed carriage. Alone.
“Well?” you say as the vehicle begins its rumble toward the country. Your eyes are low but expectant, missing not a single elegantly enraged angle of his frustrating, frustrated body. “Are you going to ask me what I know or sit there and huff vaguely for a while?”
“You know, woman, since we have no witnesses and a long ride before us, I will say…I have often wondered what it would be like to get you alone for an evening.” His eyes eat up the sight of you leaning casually on the bench. Despite yourself, you flush wildly, everywhere, and Benedict smirks immediately. “Never once, though, did I think that the pretext would include you attempting to ruin my family.”
“Ruin your family?” You are exasperated. “The delicate information I learned this night can only help you, as you know it anyway. If you’d only let me tell you—”
“Tell me what? That my father’s first wife was the truly bigamous one and that her first and only legal husband is clawing at the walls of Bedlam this very instant?” He leans over to your side of the carriage, gripping you by the shoulders as he speaks. And while you do not comprehend that he has seemingly known this entire time that Rafe’s claim is illegitimate, you do comprehend quite clearly that he is as aroused by your proximity as you are by his.
“What? I do not understand.” You truly don’t. It’s hard to understand anything with his mouth, his shoulders, his entire vital, glorious mind and body just inches from your own. You reach up to pull him onto the seat with you, propriety be damned.
For a single moment you are nervous that this was the wrong move. Your worry is instantly erased when he responds to your boldness by nuzzling his gorgeous face deep in your hair. “Mmmm, of course you do not understand,” he murmurs into the nape of your neck, letting his barely parted lips run down the line of your throat to the forbidden edge of the neckline of your dress. “You are a fool.”